PC Buyer guide and advice.

[capcom_suicide]

Win 8 and install Pokki.

[briareos_kerensky]

Win 8, install the 8.1 that will bring back the Messiah, the helix fossi...I mean, the start button. For a work computer, I would still go with Win7 though, I don't understand all this Win8 hate (...), but I've found working in a local network environment a bit easier with Win7 than 8.

[smouty]

Most people will stick with what they know and Win8 is too much of a change in the GUI with little benefit for non-touchscreen users unless you resort to a hack. The backlash was so bad MS reverted a bit in 8.1
Like a lot of people I will stick with Win7 for hopefully as long as I did with WinXP and skip Win8 unless the next version is even worse.
If you don't want to reinstall as much then look at OSX if it does all you need. There are a few things such as gaming where is still trails windows.

[Brad]

Just get Win8. Just because it has Metro doesn't mean to say you have to use Metro.

I've got my machine set up so that it cannot actually even launch metro apps. That way I never accidentally end up in one :-)
Microsoft are idiots. Hopefully some kind of sanity will return for Win 9.

[S3M]

Cheers everyone think I stick with Windows 7 due to the UI I'm just not a big fan of Win 8 and metro. I hate touch controls from a design view as they just aren't responsive enough to work well with the current level of tech.

Looking at the price at the moment might go with something closer to briareos_kerensky spec than I first though, so 16GB Win 7. Is there much different between i5 and i7 (Have i7 been out long enough to iron out the bugs) looking at getting either the i5-4670 (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache or the i7-4770 (3.4GHZ) 8MB Cache, does the cache size have much effect? Or worth saving the cash if there is now really difference.

Motherboard is ASUS H81M-PLUS: Micro-ATX LG1150 is that any good (looks quite a cheap board with no fan.)

As I want to keep the video drive seprate from the install drive. Is there much point in a RAID as I don't want the OS split across two drives. Looking at SATA-III drive one 500GB and one 3TB now.

Graphic card is a AM RADEON R7 260X, don't really wnat anything more powerful.

Any parts likely to conflict or not get the best out of them with this current config, looking at a second fan to move the hot air out quickly.